Tags

Gentlemen, start your tailgates. Commissioner Mike Slive's state-of-the-empire address at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., signals the unofficial start of football season every year. And we're off, as the league boss just stepped down from the throne, er, podium.

The big headline: Slive's latest not-so-veiled threat of the SEC and four other power conferences (Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten and ACC) breaking away from the NCAA if significant changes aren't made and autonomy granted to those leagues.

"If we do not achieve a positive outcome under the existing big tent of Division I," Slive said, "we will need to consider the establishment of a venue with similar conferences and institutions where we can enact the desired changes in the best interest of our student-athletes."

Commissioner Mike Slive speaks at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala.

His detailed thoughts on that topic in a moment, but first a few other highlights from the commissioner's speech:

* In his annual "brag bag," Slive noted SEC teams won seven national titles in 2013-14, Auburn played in the BCS national title game -- which was "just a minute too long" – and Kentucky men's basketball played in the NCAA championship game. "As Muhammad Ali said: It's not bragging if you can back it up," Slive said. AJ Reed, the Wildcats' two-way baseball star and consensus National Player of the Year, got a big nod from the commissioner.

* While the SEC is, for now, committed to sticking with eight conference games in football, Slive noted the new policy requiring league teams to play one game per season against power-conference teams outside of the conference. To that end, SEC teams have already scheduled games against Notre Dame, Michigan, UCLA, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Arizona.

*With the introduction of the College Football Playoff this season – selecting four teams to play a semifinal and final for the national championship, with a new trophy that looks like a huge calligraphy pen – the bowl structure is changing. Slive called it "a paradigm" shift.

The SEC has partnered with the Big 12 to stage the Sugar Bowl in prime time on Jan. 1. After the playoff, the Sugar Bowl and in some years the Orange Bowl, the Capital One Bowl will have its pick of remaining SEC teams. After that, six bowls – the Belk Bowl, Liberty Bowl, Music City Bowl, Outback Bowl, Taxslayer.com Bowl and Texas Bowl – will "constitute a pool," Slive said.

The SEC will assign teams to those games "rather than doing it the old-fashioned way" where bowl games did the picking themselves. Slive said the league will consult with member institutions and the bowls "but the decision will be ours." The SEC also has agreements with the Birmingham Bowl and the Independence Bowl.

* "It's hard for me to believe," Slive said, "but exactly one month from today, Aug. 14, the SEC Network will make its debut." He said that thanks to AT&T U-verse and Dish Network already signing on to carry it, the SEC Network is already "available to everyone nationwide." Cox Communications and Google Fiber have also signed on, but DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have not.

"Rest assured, there are ongoing, significant conversations with other major providers," Slive said. "This is a commercial: I strongly encourage anyone interested in the SEC Network to visit getSECNetwork.com."

In addition to more than 1,000 live events in the first year, Slive said the new network will televise four feature films in the first month, including one on Auburn's superstar trio of Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley and Frank Thomas, and another on former Florida and current South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, the league's hilarious and colorful Ol' Ball Coach.

* Then Slive got serious. Here are the highlights of his substantial comments on the state of the NCAA:

"While focused on the SEC and the achievements of our teams and student-athletes, we are actively involved in the national issues. It's an historic time. We continue to believe the uniquely American endeavor of intercollegiate athletics is properly supported on our campuses as an integral and important part of higher education. Although we must be willing to make appropriate changes in intercollegiate athletics, education must remain at the core of what we do. We must keep athletics and academics properly integrated and insure that our universities' educational missions are fulfilled. (Slive cited Florida basketball star Patric Young as the model of a student-athlete who maximized his time on and off the court.)

"It is critical for the NCAA to change – and to change in accordance with a vision proposed for the 21st century by the five (power) conferences. … We are not deaf to the din of discontent across intercollegiate athletics that has dominated the news. In the words of former President Dwight David Eisenhower, and I quote: 'Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.' With Eisenhower's admonition in mind, we have created an initiative to restructure the NCAA in accordance with our vision for the 21st century with the support of student-athletes at its core.

"The educational and cultural significance of intercollegiate athletics is far too important for us not to seek positive solutions to existing challenges. This is why we have been actively engaged in building a bridge to provide a needed avenue of change for the NCAA with a primary objective of enhancing the support enjoyed by Division I student-athletes, while maintaining and preserving the collegiate model. Winston Churchill wrote that 'continuous effort is the key to unlocking our potential.' The world of intercollegiate athletics is full of potential and I am certain that our efforts today will insure its future for tomorrow.

"This is not a new effort on our part. The SEC's call for change was introduced at Media Days in 2011, and we will continue until we realize the desired outcomes. … The vision includes the NCAA's enactment of a governing system that will provide greater autonomy for the SEC and the other four conferences (Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC) for the benefit of student-athletes.

"With a new structure in place, amongst other goals, we seek to support the educational needs of our student-athletes through the provisions of scholarships linked to cost of attendance, rather than traditional model of tuition, room, board, fees and books; to enhance the opportunity, to support a quality undergraduate education for our student-athletes, both during their playing years and beyond, if needed; to better assist student-athletes seeking to transition from college athletics into the world of professional sport; and to expand the existing health and wellness support provided to student-athletes. This is a very small, partial list of what we hope and dream to accomplish.

"If we do not achieve a positive outcome under the existing big tent of Division I, we will need to consider the establishment of a venue with similar conferences and institutions where we can enact the desired changes in the best interest of our student-athletes. The NCAA's Division I board of directors has invested significant time and effort in the restructuring process. The steering committee on governance will soon issue its final recommendations to the full NCAA board for consideration in a meeting and a vote scheduled for Aug. 7. So we will know soon. It's important that the NCAA governance and steering committee continue its support for autonomous decision-making among the five conferences, including proper voting thresholds to allow for the enactment of meaningful change.

"While acknowledging the angst among some conferences and institutions in Division I, I remain optimistic that working together, we can create a framework that places the academic and athletic success of the student-athlete front and center. It's an exciting time, for me, for college sports and for the SEC. The challenges that lay ahead in my view are not obstacles but really opportunities to forge a bridge and to make the road to the future stronger for everyone involved in intercollegiate athletics. Nelson Mandela once said, and I quote, 'Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.' We see the truth of Mr. Mandela's statement in numerous ways in college athletics."

* For instant updates on the Wildcats, follow me on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ. Email me at ktucker@courier-journal.com.